For Texans, the sky is cloudier but it is not falling

If you were like me, you heard about Matt Schaub being out for “several weeks” and you were concerned, but not overwhelmed. The Texans are in a terrible division and their running game and defense have been strong enough to pull them through until Schaub got back.

An hour later, the info broke that Schaub would be lost for the season and I found myself really grinding on how to handicap the rest of the season with Matt Leinart as the starting QB over Matt Schaub. There is no doubt to me that Matt Schaub is the better QB and that the Texans will not be as good moving forward with Matt Leinart at QB; however, I’m also confident that the Texans can keep winning because they changed their recipe to include less QB (and more cowbell).

Why The Texans Will Keep Winning

Last week I talked about the four big reasons the Texans had turned things around and none of them included QB play. In fact, only one of the three had to do with offense while the other three factors involved the defense. So how does the loss of Matt Schaub affect the defense? It doesn’t. Hell, the loss of Mario Williams hasn’t even had an impact on the defense. As long as the Houston Fire-ants keep balling on defense, they will be fine.

The Texans running game has been demolishing teams left and right thanks to an experienced and athletic offensive line who do a great job of executing and playing with technique and to two running backs in Arian Foster and Ben Tate who are running with great vision and violence. As long as the line keeps cleaning up fat guys and linebackers and as long as Foster and Tate stay healthy, they will be fine.

If you’ve watched Texans games, go ahead and start to count off the impressive games that Matt Schaub has played. Hell, go ahead and count off the impressive throws he’s made. The reality is that even with Andre Johnson, Schaub wasn’t having one of his more impressive years and without Andre, they asked him to do even less. As long as the Texans don’t ask too much of Matt Leinart, they will be fine.

The Biggest Concerns

There is no getting around the fact that Matt Leinart simply doesn’t have the type of experience as a starter or even statistics as a starter to inspire a tremendous amount of confidence. When he started in Arizona, his yards per attempt were low and he looked like a deer in headlights when teams blitzed him. His offensive line was poor and his protection was an issue which probably helped to create his skittish demeanor in the pocket.

As a right hander, Matt Schaub’s play-action boot started left and rolled out to the right while the exact opposite will be the case with Matt Leinart under center. I would say that this could make a difference, but after speaking with Aaron Schatz from FootballOutsiders.com, I found out that Foster is averaging 4.4 running left and 4.2 running right while Tate is averaging 5.0 running left and 6.1 running right. While the boot action may be headed in a different direction more frequently, the running game appears to be the same headed left or right.

While Schaub doesn’t have a strong arm, he does have a very strong grasp of the offense and before he even takes the snap, he has a very good idea about where he’s going with the ball based on the coverage and his experience within the offense. Matt Leinart doesn’t have that and can’t have that. He simply doesn’t have the experience within this offense to be able to perform at the same level of Schaub. While Schaub wasn’t putting together a big year statistically, he was taking care of the ball and that is a concern with Leinart taking over after being relatively inactive during the last three years.

As long as Wade Phillips keeps scheming, Brian Cushing keeps attacking, the defensive line continues to play like Fire-ants, Johnathan Joseph keeps playing like an All-Pro and the running game handles it’s business…. the Texans will be fine.

P.S. – Brett Favre? No thanks.

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Coach Zierlein joins us on The Big Show each Tuesday to talk about the Texans and the X’s and O’s each week and this week we talked about the Texans win, the defense and Matt Leinart taking over. Sure, my voice is shot, but I fought through it.